I have had two rifles where the barrel had been bedded, full length, with epoxy compound. One Rem M700 where I bedded the action and removed the pressure point in the stock.

All of these rifles showed an improvement in accuracy when the barrel bedding was removed.

I don't know if it matters with precision 22 LR's, but every match Anschutz I have seen, the barrel is free floating. Some of the older rifles, M52's, M37's, Rem 40X's, the barrel makes full contact with the barrel channel.

On older hunting rifles the barrels are closely inletted into the stock and on older M70's there are barrel bands. It is apparent that "back in the day" authorities of the era thought fixing the barrel in place was the way to go.

I wonder if it was due to the awful bullets that were in use back then. Maybe they were playing with bedding and could not distinguish between the effects of their bedding and random grouping.